aggienaut | Entries tagged with train travel

   In Theory on Monday I'd take the train to Albury, 7.5 hours, and then drive from there to Euston (5.5 hours), and that would be that. Not so simple it turns out.

   In the morning (6:11am!) I found googlemaps directing me not to my local train station but bus stop. I don't know how it knows when the train has been replaced by a bus (or "coach" as they call it to sound more classy) but all one can do is trust google maps implicitly. So road the train-replacement-bus about forty min to an hour in to Waurn Ponds on the outskirts of Geelong, where we were all able to transfer on to a train. Train from there to Melbourne's Southern Cross station (1 hour, 25 min). Had about 40 minutes there (8:45 - 9:26) which was perfect for grabbing a hot cheese-and-ham croissant at a station cafe for breakfast. Then train another hour and a half north to the town of Seymour (10:56). It seemed like half the train's occupants got out here, but a lot of them must have been ending their journey there because only two v-line (train company) coaches were boarding passengers for onward journeys, and the Albury bound (pronounced Aubrey) bus was less than a third full, one person per row-side. Two hours on this bus headed east north east to Albury.

   I thought I'd be popping in to the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) office there to get oriented/inducted/whatever but clarifying it via email I was informed I was just to go to the car rental place there to pick up a car. Which, being as Albury is a substantial distance the wrong direction from my final destination I thought the whole reason I was coming here was because it was the closest DPI office to me. Anyway, walked from the train station to the downtown area to have lunch at a Vietnamese place. Seemed like a nice town, weather was pleasantly in the 20s/70s c/f. Car rental place was 3.1 km out of town, I didn't feel like walking it, for one thing that would add time I couldn't afford to add on to an already long journey. Uber didn't come up with anything so had to call a yellow taxi. The journey up to this point had cost me $18 in train fares, this taxi cost me $23. Hopefully I'll be reimbursed -- the DPI had said they couldn't cover my travel outside of NSW but Albury was in state so..
   Taxi driver was an immigrant from Pakistan (15 years ago). It's funny, being a fellow immigrant, I always get a happy feeling of comraderie from fellow immigrants whereever they're from. We're a secret club.

   Got the rental car, and then it was a 5.5 hour drive from there west to the final destination of Euston, through small towns and small rural highways. I was surprised by how few other cars were on the road, even passing through the small towns the streets seemed deserted. Sun set. I was afraid of hitting kangaroos but didn't see any, just a fox that cheekily crossed the road just in front of me.

   Arrived at the hotel at 20:24 -- 14 hours after setting out! I've been on plenty of 14 hour flights, people act like thats a shocking and miserable amount of time to be on a flight -- I can tell you 14 hours on a flight is sheer paradise compared to 14 hours of coach-train-coach-taxi-car.

The hotel here is gaudy like a casino, and indeed has a section off the spacious restaurant portion full of slot machines (it is after all the "Euston Club Resort," though we're staying in the "Euston Club Motel" section).

Checked in to my room and then returned to the restaurant as i was by now very overdue for dinner. Kitchen was closed of course but there was a very decent large meat pie on a warming rack i was able to get -- but not before being sternly chastised for wearing a hat. I don't know if it's a literal law that hats can't be worn in "clubs" or this is just a piece of etiquette Australians feel very strongly about but, while i don't think it's enforced in pubs or restaurants, anything that quantifies as any sort of "club" will remind you to take your hat off in a tone dripping with poisonous disdain.

And my "schooner" (half pint?) of (alcoholic) ginger beer cost $13 (roo bucks), which i felt was a bit high!

And that was my Monday. Having called and texted our team leader with no success in attempting to find out what we were doing the next day or when and where to meet, I went to bed without having any idea what was in store the next day.

Premise
   This past weekend, Thursday the 25th through Sunday the 27th, the Reverend Kris Fricke¹ may have been at the eleventh annual convention of the Atheist Alliance International. Then again he may not have been there (after all, if he WAS there, it could realistically be anticipated to open him up to religious persecution before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee some day), but pictures have surfaced of him with several famous people who happened to be there as well. This entry will suppose that he was there however.

A Theological Disclaimer
   There seems to be universal revulsion to the concept of atheism. Many essentially atheist organizations avoid the name completely, for example many of the affiliated organizations go by other names like "freethinkers," "skeptics," "humanists," "secular humanists" and "secularists," among others. Many of these names I think slightly misrepresent the point, and as to "freethinkers" and other such names, I don't think a name is going to succeed that is composed of words with a wide degree of superior connotation; only a word made of latin or greek roots that accurately describe the philosophy will succeed.
   But why does the current negative connotation exist? Fricke's own parents, fairly liberal and agnostic individuals themselves, reacted with "thats disgusting!" upon learning Kris was to attend the convention -- reacting possibly with more revulsion than they did to his mohawk. I can only imagine that the image is that atheists all sit around "hating god," not unlike the Grinch. That atheists are a people filled with bitterness, resentment, hatred and a concoction of other deplorable emotions. In fact however, its a belief with appreciably less acrimony than other religions, that simply does not include a god. Its "holy texts" are all those scientific reports that are supported by reproducable experiments and scientific method. That they "hate god" of course is patently false for obvious reasons; and whereas other religions believe that those who don't believe in their religion aren't merely wrong but have developed defective souls; atheists certainly go no further than believing that the theistic hold incorrect ideas.
   Kris Fricke incidently does not consider himself to be an atheist however, but agnostic. Moreover, he sometimes claims to be an agnostotheist, a term he may have coined himself, which holds that not only is it unknowable as to whether or not God exists, but if God were to exist, supposing God was supremely enlightened, and having given man free will and extensive powers of reasoning, God would prefer that man did not commit himself to so narrow and arbitrary a belief system as most religion. If God intended to test mankind to determine which of us is Worthy and which is not, the test is not rigorous adherence to arbitrary religious tenets, but that those who submit to severe religious conviction are the ones God actually finds deficient. But this is just Kris' idea of the most likely scenario if God exists at all, as usual Kris prefers to remain unaffiliated.
   But this entry is not intended to be a theological thesis. The above is given merely in an endeavor to dissuade the reader from thinking that attendance at an atheist convention is tantamount to being part of a vast atheist conspiracy of grinch-like hatred.

Narrative
   After the usual intellectual overload of finals, Fricke was taking everything one step at a time. He took the train back to Orange County (a 13 hour adventure!) without anyone to pick him up in Irvine (coming in two hours later than scheduled though his father was able to pick him up), and the next day drove down to the convention at the Crowne Plaza hotel next to LAX without knowing where he was going to sleep that night. As luck would have it, the presidential suite had been booked as a command and control post for the convention, but no one official was scheduled to sleep there (perhaps lest it appear convention funds were being used to put top officials in the presidential suite?), so the ten or so college students present occupied the room both nights.
   This college faction consisted of Fricke and another girl from Davis (one Jessica), and eight people from Cal Poly Pomona, led by none other than Misha Novini an individual Kris had gone to junior high and high school together. The second day they were joined by a contingent of about five persons consisting of one from Davis and her friends from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, who were also easily accomodated by the luxurious presidential suite.
   The convention consisted of a number of prestigious speakers interspersed between various discussion groups. The speakers included renowned scientist Richard Dawkins, as well as the man behind the lawsuit over the presence of "under God" in the pledge of allegiance (Dr Newdow, whom Kris got his picture taken with), and actress Julia Sweeney, among others. Also appearing, though not presenting, were the famous magicians Penn & Teller, whom Kris also had his picture taken with.

   One noteable speech was by one Dr. Robert Price, a former fundamentalist Christian scholar, who essentially studied the bible and its origins so extensively that even coming from the perspective that it was true he convinced himself that it was not. Aside from the extensive inconsistencies, he found that nearly every story in it was suspiciously close to existant myths and legends at the approximate time of its origin, in particular the story of the resurrection closely mirrors myths about Dionysis and Osiris that were popular at the time.

   In his speech, Michael Newdow mentioned that he tries to use the word "interlard" in all his legal briefs because it is an excellent word, and also that "spatchcock" is the verb form of interlard. Also he mentioned to me that he would be speaking at Davis sometime soon (the 20th of next month?) and I intended to find the particulars of this event on the internet but have been unable.

¹Yes Kris is a legally recognized reverend of the Universal Life Church

Other Encounters
   One of the Davis people I didn't know said she had read this livejournal before; One of the Pomona kids noted this livejournal's name looked familiar; three of the pomona kids indicated they had livejournals; one of the other affiliate group leaders, a professor at Stanford, in the meeting of affiliate group representatives, said he intended to create a wiki for his group, in response to which several others in the room demonstrated understanding of the concept, and at the mention of wikipedia significantly more indicated recognition; Kris later wikivangelized to the Stanford professor on the sublime creation that is Daviswiki.
   In addition to seeing Misha Novini, Kris ventured forth from the hotel Saturday evening to visit his friend Marianna Kotcharian who attends to Occidental College in LA; back in MV Kris randomly ran into elementry through high school acquantance Geoffrey Nicholson outside of Diedrichs off La Paz and then later had an extensive conversation with high school friend Nadia Ahmed, who attends UCI and as it turns out knows Chonchol Gupta.

Previously on Emosnail
   Two Years Ago Today: The Kyrgyz Flag - As you ought to know, protestors recently overthrew the corrupt Kyrgyz government. This strongly contrasts the Ukrainian government overthrow, despite the parallels the newspapers like make, in that wheras in the Ukrainian case the protestors accomplished their goals through protesting, in the instant case the protestors accomplished their goals by physically storming the capitol building. What ho! Guess who's next and win a twinkie: Turkmenistan or Kasakhstan?
   Year Ago Today: Showdown in Corona - Quality adventures with Oi Kelly and Alex.

Current Music: Against Me! - Pints of Guinness Make You Strong

Wednesday: Last Final
   Last Wednesday (03/25/04) I had my last final, ENL113A, at 0800. It was mad easy. Then I said goodbye to Kristy, and proceeded to sleep away the rest of the afternoon.

Thursday: The Journey Home
   Thursday morning my uncle Ben gave me a ride across town to the Davis Amtrak station for my 0725 Amtrak bus to Stockton (hour & 25 minutes). Waited there for half an hour and then it was time for the four hour, 26 minute, trainride to Bakersfield. Then the funnest part [/sarcasm] two hours and twenty minutes on a bus sitting next to a crazy guy down to Los Angeles' Union Station. Fifty-five minute wait thee and then hour and three minute train ride to Irvine station. Total time: 10 hours, 47 minutes.
   No I didn't time everything, those are the official times I was given.

   That evening I just loafed about at home and took it easy.

Friday: Return to Diedrichs
   Friday afternoon I went on some adventures with Shalane (impotent_dream). She's been drug-free for 66 days now and its so nice to have sober Shillelagh back and I'm so happy for her.
   She's in Mexico now for the weekend.
   I really like her latest drawing Fig. S20 (apparently thats even a bad scan). Compare to pre-drugs Fig. S19.

   Then my good friend Alex called and her and her friend Oi Kelly came to visit me. Our initial plan was to stop by infamous Diedrichs off La Paz to get coffee and then come up with a new plan and have adventures elsewhere. Arriving at Diedrichs at around 9pm, we ended up staying there until about 1am.
   At first there didn't seem to be very many locals there that I knew.. just this guy Ryan who works there and Tristan.. then Croat (inequity) showed up, and Cool Kyle, and MtHH (who was suprisingly agreeable).
   Then, most suprising of all, my cousin Holly (bobolly), and her boyfriend / our longtime family friend Eric Shamay (shamster) showed up; apparently because they were in the area and suspected correctly that they could find me there.

   Tried this "Cisco" alcohol Croat's been raving about. Tasted like utter crap but it did give me a rather pleasent buzz with no inkling of sickness its true (going down it felt like it was gonna make me sick though). How can you be hard core drinking something strawberry flavoured though?

In Other News
   Little brother Lance Corporal Fricke was just notified that he will be sent to Iraq as early as this Wedneday.

   Mother just got a new job working in the office of the Assistant Vice Chancellor of Communications at UCI.

   Eric (Lance Corporal Fricke) had actually just started working at mother's previous place of employment, The Yarn Lady when he got notified of his immenent departure. He promptly was like "eff that!" and after a career of one day retired from the Yarn Lady.

   I used my last package of Knox Gelatine trying (rather unsuccessfully) to spike my hair on Friday. I'm now on a mission to discover a more effective way of doing it, since spiking with the gelatine is just about impossible to do alone.
   I washed out my miserable attempt at spiking with gelatine after it had been in less than three hours and tried again with this weird gel Shalane's friend gave me and it worked pretty well. I want to experiment with murrey's wax and aquanette hairspray next.. and if I get desperate maybe look into this egg white thing.

Related
   A Year Ago Today: Taco Loco, Solomite Show, Diedrichs, & Denny's
   Holly's reference to these events
   Eric's reference to these events